Ardsley Country Club builds a court in response to APTA efforts to grow the game

The Ardsley Country Club in Ardsley-on-Hudson, NY was one of the first clubs to build a court based on the APTA’s grow the game initiative. Blanchard’s Scrapbook included a picture of the court being used in 1935 although the caption was Ardsley Racquet and Swim Club which had by then merged with the Ardsley Club2, an informal offshoot of The Ardsley Casino1, that year to form The Ardsley Country Club. Interestingly the player in the dark sweater is very likely Stuart R. Stevenson3, an avid racquets player, who was the club’s representative to the APTA. He was the grandson of one of the founder of the The Ardsley Casino in 1985, Amzi Lorenzo Barber “The Asphalt King”, and his wife Julia.

The courtIt was removed during WWII as the wood was rotting and could not be replaced due to lack of materials during the war.

Note 1: The Ardsley Casino was created through the support of some of the most notable and successful men in the US including Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and J. Pierpont Morgan. The Casino was built overlooking the Hudson River and had a private dock to accommodate the yachts of members. In addition to a casino there were grass tennis courts that attracted top ranked players and the “finest and longest golf course in the world” designed by Willie Dunn who became the first gold professional. The Casino also had construct a large stable annex nearby from which a the stagecoach Tally-Ho left daily for the Hotel Brunswick on lower Fifth Avenue in New York City. The Casino clubhouse was torn down in 1936

Note 2: This offshoot had been formed in 1927 and had been using the stable complex built by The Ardsley Casino as a clubhouse.

Note 3: Stevenson was a Princeton graduate turned his sweater inside out when playing as it sported a “P’ logo but it was considered bad form to displayed it. He developed rheumatoid arthritis shortly after this picture was taken and become legally blind by 1940 when it spread to his eyes.

The Chalmers Family – St. James the Less, Scarsdale Inquirer, Junior Wightman Cup, and APTA National Champion

The Reverend Alan Reid Chalmers was the rector of St. James the Less from 1920 – 1940 and was a keen tennis player and apparently the person to beat in singles. The July 8, 1922 edition of the Scarsdale Inquirer reported on the Men’s Singles and said the “the most noteworthy event… was the defeat of Rev. Alan R. Chalmers, who was on his way to being the club’s perpetual and universal champion.”

Born in Cambridge, MA, Chalmers was the son of an Episcopal minister who served the Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City for 27 years before his death. He was educated at St. Paul’s School, Garden city, LI and Princeton (1908). After a short business career he attended the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge MA and graduated in 1913. Upon graduation he married the former Ruth Nash, a Vassar graduate, and served as a missionary in Cody, WY before moving to Scarsdale in 1920.

Ruth Nash Chalmers started a long career as editor of the Scarsdale Inquirer in 1926 and retired in 1957. Her retirement was covered in a special edition of the Scarsdale Inquirer captioned The Scarsdale Chalmers

The Chalmers had four daughters and one, Ruth, remained a long-time member of the club. She was a graduate of Scarsdale High School and Smith College, and was a ranking junior tennis player and a member of the Junior Wightman Cup Squad. She also toured in England with the Camp Merestead field hockey team and later as manager of the U.S. women’s lacrosse association touring team to Great Britain and Ireland. In 1957, she and Richard Hebard of Scarsdale won the National Mixed Doubles Championship of the American Platform Tennis Association.

First court built outside of U. S. in Nova Scotia

The court was constructed in Central Argyle, half an hour or so SSE of Yarmouth in Nova Scotia, on the property of the Ardnamurchan Club.

Ardnamurchan, named after the eponymous peninsular on the west coast of Scotland, is not a club in the traditional sense. During 1908-1909 many acres of land were purchased and a large shingled house built on waterfront property, solely for the purpose of being a summer gathering place for the Cox family, all originally from Philadelphia.

The incorporators of the Club included paddle tennis co-founder Fessenden Blanchard’s mother-in-law, Martha Cox Bryant, one of eight children.

Of course, with the Blanchard family as members, a paddle court was bound to follow and one was built in 1938, ten years after the sport’s invention.

The first court was very simple and the wires were not very good but still provided fun summer-time recreation. The court was improved later on but still built with local materials. It wasn’t until 1996 than the Club members voted to have a new court constructed professionally by a U.S. company.

The Ardnamurchan Club is still going strong with family members now numbering over 200 , and paddle tennis is still a popular part of their summer sports scene

Source: Molly Blanchard Ware, April, 2014

Courts in the U.S. ca. 1939

This is a partial listing as there were “platforms too many to mention in the suburban area of New York City,” and there were also courts in Los Angeles and Nova Scotia.

Source:”Growth of the Game,” Report to members of the American Paddle Tennis Association”, as cited in Paddle Tennis, Blanchard 1944